Might interest anyone who has seen this film scene.

Liverpool Daily Post - Monday 20 August 1928
Image © Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

FILMING A TRAIN SMASH.
FAKED DISASTER AT CROSSING.
MOTORISTS HORRIFIED.

People motoring on the road between Alton and Basingstoke yesterday were
horrified to see a level crossing smash between train travelling at
fifty miles an hour loaded with sand. Both were wrecked but there was
no loss of life, because neither the train nor the lorry had a living
soul upon it.

The explanation was that the big scene in a film called "The Wreckers"
in preparation by a British company was being enacted. The Southern
Railway Company had given permission to the producers to use this local
line over which there is no Sunday traffic, and had sold them an old
corridor train and a large engine whilst a length been removed to give
an added touch of realism to the “disaster.”

A large body of police from all parts of Hampshire were present to keep
the public out danger, and elaborate precautions were taken to ensure
safety of those connected with the film. Behind a protective barrier of
sandbags, operators "shot" the scene from five batteries of cameras four
being concealed behind the boughs of trees and the other in a dummy
haystack

After the smash breakdown gangs removed the wreckage and restored the
line to its normal appearance.

JMB99 <mb@nospam.net> wrote:
>
> Might interest anyone who has seen this film scene.
>
> Liverpool Daily Post - Monday 20 August 1928
> Image © Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
>
> FILMING A TRAIN SMASH.
> FAKED DISASTER AT CROSSING.
> MOTORISTS HORRIFIED.
>
> People motoring on the road between Alton and Basingstoke yesterday were
> horrified to see a level crossing smash between train travelling at
> fifty miles an hour loaded with sand. Both were wrecked but there was
> no loss of life, because neither the train nor the lorry had a living
> soul upon it.
>
> The explanation was that the big scene in a film called "The Wreckers"
> in preparation by a British company was being enacted. The Southern
> Railway Company had given permission to the producers to use this local
> line over which there is no Sunday traffic, and had sold them an old
> corridor train and a large engine whilst a length been removed to give
> an added touch of realism to the “disaster.”
>
> A large body of police from all parts of Hampshire were present to keep
> the public out danger, and elaborate precautions were taken to ensure
> safety of those connected with the film. Behind a protective barrier of
> sandbags, operators "shot" the scene from five batteries of cameras four
> being concealed behind the boughs of trees and the other in a dummy
> haystack
>
> After the smash breakdown gangs removed the wreckage and restored the
> line to its normal appearance.
>

The footage was also used in another film which required a train crash
scene.
Legend is that bits of train including a coach headstock could be found at
the location for some decades after.
The more famous film that used the ilne was OH Mr Porter and the end of
the run into Basingstoke was quite recognisable till recently but the Bay
platform used is now trackless. Remarkably a few hundred feet of the line
still remains in situ as it was a head shunt for some sidings at
Basingstoke station but some sidings now installed to service stock with
CET has seen it now blocked off so it is probably living on borrowed time.

GH